Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Media multitasking, attention, and distraction: a critical discussion

  • Published:
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Students often multitask with technologies such as computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones during class. Unfortunately, numerous empirical studies firmly establish a significant drop in academic performance caused by this media multitasking. In this paper it is argued that cognitive studies may have clarified the negative consequences of this activity, yet they struggle to address the processes involved in it. A cognitive characterization of attention as a mental phenomenon neglects the interaction between bodies and technologies, and it is suggested that a postphenomenological understanding is necessary to account for the materiality of practice. Notions of embodied habits and technical mediation are introduced, and an example of a postphenomenological account of media multitasking is introduced. It is argued that this approach enables researchers to investigate media multitasking as it occurs in everyday educational practice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. One might question the aptness of e.g., testing “attention in the classroom” by making solitary psychology students watch a 60 min pre-recorded lecture titled Introduction to Ancient Greek History: Lecture 2 (Risko et al. 2013).

  2. To be so dumb that one cannot “chew gum and walk at the same time” is, in fact, a famous putdown delivered by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Republican politician (and later president) Gerald Ford.

  3. A third generation of cognitive scientists has since attempted to integrate notions of the active body under headings such as extended, enacted, and embodied cognition (e.g., Clark 1997; Noë 2004; Varela et al., 1991).

  4. Indeed, media multitasking studies often refer to driving studies (e.g., Bowman et al. 2010; Dietz and Henrich 2014).

References

  • Adams, C. & Pente, P. (2011). Teachers Teaching in the New Mediascape: Digital Immigrants or ‘Natural Born Cyborgs’? E-Learning and Digital Media, vol. (3).

  • Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. Signs, vol. 28(3).

  • Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘Digital Natives’ Debate: A Critical Review of the Evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 39(5).

  • Bowman, L., Levine, L., Waite, B., & Gendron, M. (2010). Can Students Really Multitask? An Experimental Study of Instant Messaging While Reading. Computers & Education, vol. 54(4).

  • Brinkmann, S. & Tanggaard, L. (2010). Toward an Epistemology of the Hand. Studies in Philosophy and Education, vol. 29(3).

  • Carman, T. (2008). Merleau-ponty. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. (1997). Being there: putting brain, body, and world together again. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbetta, M. & Shulman, G. (2002). Control of Goal Directed and Stimulus-driven Attention in the Brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 3(3).

  • Crossley, N. (2001). The social body: habit, identity and desire. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csordas, T. (1993). Somatic Modes of Attention. Cultural Anthropology, vol. 8(2).

  • Dietz, S., & Henrich, C. (2014). Texting as distraction to learning in college students. Computers in Human Behavior, vol., 36.

  • Dreyfus, H. (2002). Intelligence Without Representation - Merleau-Ponty’s Critique of Mental Representation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 1(4).

  • Ellis, Y., Daniels, B., & Jauregui, A. (2010). The Effect of Multitasking on the Grade Performances of Business Students. Research in Higher Education Journal, vol. 8

  • Fernandez-Duque, D. & Johnson, M. (2002). Cause and Effect Theories of Attention: The Role of Conceptual Metaphors. Review of General Psychology, vol. 6(2).

  • Fox, A., Rosen, J., & Crawford, M. (2009). Distractions, Distractions: Does Instant Messaging Affect College Students’ Performance on a Concurrent Reading Comprehension Task? CyberPsychology and Behavior, vol. 12(1).

  • Fried, C. (2008). In-Class Laptop Use and Its Effects on Student Learning. Computers & Education, vol. 50(3).

  • Friesen, N. (2011). Dissection and Simulation: Brilliance and Transparency, or Encumbrance and Disruption? Techné, vol. 15(3).

  • Gaudreau, P., Miranda, D., & Gareau, A. (2014). Canadian University Students in Wireless Classrooms: What Do They Do on Their Laptops and Does it Really Matter? Computers & Education, vol. 70.

  • Hacking, I. (1983). Representing and intervening: introductory topics in the philosophy of natural science. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hembrooke, H. & Gay, G. (2003). The Laptop and the Lecture: The Effects of Multitasking in Learning Environments. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, vol. 15(1).

  • Ihde, D. (1990). Technology and the lifeworld: from garden to earth. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ihde, D. (2000). Epistemology Engines. Nature, vol. 406(1).

  • Ihde, D. & Selinger, E. (2004). Merleau-Ponty and Epistemology Engines. Human Studies, vol. 27(4).

  • Junco, R., & Cotten, S. R. (2011). Perceived Academic Effects of Instant Messaging Use. Computers & Education, vol. 56(2).

  • Kirschner, P. & Karpinski, A. (2010). Facebook® and Academic Performance. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 26(6).

  • Kraushaar, J. & Novak, D. (2010). Examining the Effects of Student Multitasking with Laptops During the Lecture. Journal of Information Systems Education, vol. 21(2).

  • Lee, J., Lin, L. & Robertson, T. (2012). The Impact of Media Multitasking on Learning. Learning, Media and Technology, vol. 37(1).

  • Mace, W. (1977). James J. Gibson’s strategy for perceiving: ask not what’s inside your head, but what your head’s inside of. In R. E. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, acting, and knowing. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Duggan, M., Cortesi, S. & Gasser, U. Teens and Technology 2013. Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 13, 2013. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx, accessed on June 2nd, 2014.

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, P. & Oppenheimer, D. (2014). The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological Science. Advance online publication. doi: 0.1177/0956797614524581

  • Noë, A. (2004). Action in perception. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. (1980). Orienting of Attention. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 32(1).

  • Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part I. On the Horizon, vol. 9(5).

  • Radman, Z. (2012). Preface. In Z. Radman (Ed.), Knowing without thinking: mind, action, cognition, and the phenomenon of background. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, I. (2005). Mobile Technosoma: Some Phenomenological Reflections on Itinerant Media Devices. Fibreculture, vol. 6(1).

  • Risko, E., Buchanan, D., Medimorec, S., & Kingstone, A. (2013). Everyday Attention: Mind Wandering and Computer Use During Lectures. Computers & Education, vol. 68

  • Rosen, L., Lim, A., Carrier, M., & Cheever, N. (2011). An Empirical Examination of the Educational Impact of Text Message-induced Task Switching in the Classroom: Educational Implications and Strategies to Enhance Learning. Psicologia Educativa, vol. 17(2).

  • Rosenberger, R. (2010). The Spatial Experience of Telephone Use. Environment, Space, Place, vol. 2(2).

  • Rosenberger, R. (2012). Embodied Technology and the Dangers of Using the Phone While Driving. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 11(1).

  • Rosenberger, R. (2013). The Problem with Hands-Free Dashboard Cellphones. Communications of the ACM, vol. 56(4).

  • Sampson, E. (1998). Establishing embodiment in psychology. In H. Stam (Ed.), The body and psychology. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. (2013). Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers. Computers & Education, vol. 62

  • Selinger, E. (2006). Postphenomenology: a critical companion to Ihde. New York: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selinger, E. (2013). Should Students Use a Laptop in Class? Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2013

  • Srivastava, J. (2013). Media Multitasking Performance: Role of Message Relevance and Formatting Cues in Online Environments. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 29(3).

  • Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive load theory. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing Up digital: the rise of the Net generation. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallor, S. (2012). New social media and virtues. In P. Brey, A. Briggle, & E. Spence (Eds.), The good life in a technological Age. New York: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The embodied mind: cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verbeek, P. P. (2005). What things Do: philosophical reflections on technology, agency, and design. Penn State: Penn State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verbeek, P. P. (2011). Moralizing technology: understanding and designing the morality of things. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, E., Zivcakova, L., Gentile, P., Archer, K., De Pasquale, D., & Nosko, A. (2012). Examining the Impact of Off-task Multi-tasking with Technology on Real-time Classroom Learning. Computers & Education, vol. 58(1).

  • Zhang, W. & Zhang, L. (2012). Explicating Multitasking with Computers. Gratifications and Situations. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 28(5).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Jesper Aagaard

Authors
  1. Jesper Aagaard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jesper Aagaard.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Aagaard, J. Media multitasking, attention, and distraction: a critical discussion. Phenom Cogn Sci 14, 885–896 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-014-9375-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-014-9375-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation